Services enter the semis

Indore: A spirited Services side stunned favourites Uttar Pradesh by five wickets to enter the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy here on Tuesday.

Chasing a target of 113 to win, Services were rocked by UP pacer Ankit Rajpoot (5/36) to be reduced to 54 for five before captain Soumik Chatterjee (34 ..) and Rajat Paliwal (32 ..) came to the rescue.

The young UP pacer Rajpoot, after bagging a five-wicket haul in the first innings, created a flutter in the Services camp. He removed the top-order of the opposition to keep UP’s hopes alive.

However the determination of Paliwal and the grit of Chatterjee, who was unable to walk with a badly injured left knee, saw Services home. The duo shared an unbeaten partnership of 62 runs for the sixth wicket.

Chatterjee brought up the win in style with a huge six over mid-on off spinner Ali Murtaza.

Earlier, resuming the day on 138 for four, UP were bowled out for 241 in 78 overs.

UP paceman Imtiaz Ahmed played an aggressive cameo of 40 runs off just 37 deliveries during which he hit two boundaries and four sixes.

However, the fact that UP continued to lose wickets at regular intervals didn’t help their cause.

For Services, right-arm pacer Suraj Yadav accounted for seven UP batsmen and ended the match with career-best match figures of 9/106.

In another quarter final match at Rajkot, Manish Pandey’s fine century might go in vain as hosts Saurashtra took the lead against Karnataka. Saurashtra took a crucial 73-run lead after restricting Karnataka to 396. For the visitors, Pandey made a fine 177 off 228 balls and struck 15 fours and three sixes.

Riding on three centuries Mumbai posted a mammoth 645 for nine declared and then reduced Baroda to 167 for five on Tuesday.

Replying to Mumbai's huge first innings' total, Baroda were struggling at stumps with half the team already out, still trailing by 478 runs and needing 279 more to avoid the follow-on.